Oxford student faces legal action over Chinese trip

An Oxford University student who bluffed his way to China by posing as a lecturer was today facing possible legal action after his employers discovered his true identity and the Beijing police launched an investigation into his disappearance.

Matthew Richardson, a 23-year-old engineering undergraduate from St Peter's College, Oxford, arrived back from his trip to China on Sunday after delivering the first part of the advanced economics course to business PhD students before losing his bottle and "doing a runner".

Mr Richardson made his way through the first day and a half of lectures by reading from an A-level textbook, but when the book drew to a close, he lost his nerve and disappeared half way through the day to a hotel, before boarding his flight home a day later.

His disappearance was so abrupt that it has sparked an investigation by Beijing police.

Mr Richardson, who says his phone has been ringing with press inquiries non stop since yesterday morning, today said he posted his entry and exit stamps on his website, along with photos of his lectures in Beijing, in an effort to convince the many doubters in Oxford that he actually went to China.

He insisted he was approached and jumped at the chance of a trip to China, confident that he could devise a lecture for undergraduates or school students. "The reality was somewhat different. It wasn't a two-hour lecture, but 20 hours, and instead of A-level or undergraduate students it was doctoral students doing a DBA. I was quite taken aback but rather than cause a fuss I thought I would give it a crack."

He said he was able to read ahead from his battered textbook on global financial markets as each passage of his lecture was translated. "I think they enjoyed it but it was hard to tell. I received some compliments during the lunch break.

"But I ran out of chapters and decided it was time to take my leave so I got in a taxi and drove away."

Warnborough College, the Irish registered "global university", which claimed it had unwittingly employed the undergraduate to make the trip, today said it was conducting an investigation and seeking legal advice.

Dr Julian Ng, who arranged the trip, told EducationGuardian.co.uk that the students were "very upset".

"We think that Matthew Richardson has behaved unprofessionally and unethically. He has misled us."

He said Mr Richardson had been contracted for the lectures at the last minute via a private Oxford tutorials' company after the previous lecturer dropped out because of fears about chicken flu. He said the college only received a CV revealing who he actually was after he had delivered his first lecture.

"We are conducting a full investigation and are awaiting reports from Beijing," said Dr Ng. "We will be talking to our solicitors, but whether we take action will be a matter for the [college] council to decide."

Mr Richardson strongly denied he had misled the Oxford tutorials company, run by Raoul Cerratti, about his lack of economics qualifications.

He claimed the misunderstanding arose somewhere along the chain from the university in Beijing, Warnborough, Mr Cerratti's private tutorial college and himself. "If you'll pardon the pun it was a case of Chinese whispers," he said. He thinks the Chinese may have thought they were getting a real professor of economics - Matthew Richardson, of New York University's business school.

"Nobody has been in contact with me since I got back on Sunday. If they were so upset why didn't they? They have just realised the mistake now and they're a bit hacked off. I hope it doesn't get serious. I don't think the Chinese rumbled me while I was there but they were on the verge of rumbling me - that's why I left."

A source within Oxford University said there had been much speculation among students over whether Mr Richardson had actually made the trip, which they had heard about several weeks before. "I'm so surprised that he pulled it off. There's quite a lot of people who say he's done it because he wants to stand for union president. He's quite a character in union politics," said the source.